MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Miami-Dade police arrested two men and one woman over the weekend on dozens of charges after detectives found a trove of defaced, stolen or otherwise suspicious items, leading them to believe the trio were part of a vehicle theft ring.
Police said they cracked the case thanks to a laptop.
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According to arrest reports, a man called police Saturday morning to report that his vehicle had been stolen with various items inside, including his Palm Beach County Fire Rescue bunker gear and a MacBook Air.
That MacBook would be key to the case, according to police, because the victim was able to track it to a home on Southwest 80th Drive in the Kendall area.
After getting a search warrant, auto theft detectives discovered a hoard of evidence, including two motorcycles with altered VINs, two signal-jamming devices, 58 key fobs, a key fob programming tool, four license plates belonging to stolen vehicles, plus a handgun magazine with six cartridges and vehicle registration paperwork from a stolen Dodge Charger, according to arrest reports.
Police subsequently arrested Christian DaSilva, 18, Alyssa McFarlane, 23, and Ivan Sifonte, 18, who resided at the house.
The three faced 58 counts of conspiracy to commit vehicle theft and two counts of defacing or altering a vehicle identification mark.
They also faced various additional charges, including, in Sifonte’s case, six counts of possessing ammunition as a convicted felon.
Sifonte was out on felony bond on charges of fleeing and eluding a police officer, vehicle theft and felon in possession of a firearm, according to jail records.
Jail records show the three were being held in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center as of Monday afternoon.